Telemachus's Journey to Pylos

Telemachus's Journey to Pylos marks the moment when the son of Odysseus steps out of the shadow of his absent father and begins to act on his own behalf. For years he has sat helpless among the suitors who devour his inheritance, brooding on what his father would do if he were to return. Athena, visiting Ithaca in the guise of Mentes, tells him directly that he is "too old to plead infancy any longer" and urges him to sail to Pylos and Sparta to seek news of Odysseus. The goddess's words strike home: Telemachus feels the change, wonders at it, and knows that the stranger has been a god. That same night, lying covered with a woollen fleece in his high tower room, he keeps thinking through the night of his intended voyage and of the counsel Athena has given him.

The Assembly and the Secret Preparations

At dawn Telemachus rises and dresses, looking "like an immortal god," and calls the people of Ithaca to assembly. There he denounces the suitors for wasting his estate and demands a ship and crew for his voyage. The suitors mock him, and the assembly breaks up in disorder, but Telemachus does not waver. He goes alone to the seashore, washes his hands in the grey waves, and prays to Athena. She appears again, now in the likeness of Mentor, and promises to find him a ship and crew. While Telemachus returns to the house and orders the faithful old nurse Euryclea to draw off twelve jars of wine and twenty measures of barley meal, Athena goes round the town, taking Telemachus's shape to gather volunteers, and asks Noemon for the use of a ship. By nightfall the vessel is ready, the crew assembled, and the suitors, whom Athena has thrown into a deep slumber, are asleep and unsuspecting.

The Voyage and Arrival at Pylos

Telemachus and the disguised Athena board the ship together, taking their seats in the stern. The men loose the hawsers, and Athena sends them a fair West wind. They set the mast in its socket, hoist the white sails, and the ship flies through the deep blue water, the foam hissing against her bows. All night they sail, and at sunrise they reach Pylos, the city of Neleus. The people are gathered on the shore sacrificing black bulls to Poseidon—nine guilds of five hundred men each, with nine bulls to each guild. Telemachus and his crew furl their sails, bring the ship to anchor, and go ashore. Athena leads the way, telling Telemachus not to be shy but to go straight up to Nestor and ask him the truth, for Nestor is an excellent person who will tell no lies.

Reception by Nestor and the First News

Nestor and his sons are feasting on the beach. Pisistratus, Nestor's youngest unmarried son, welcomes the strangers, seats them on soft sheepskins, and gives them portions of the inward meats and wine. After the meal, Nestor asks who they are. Telemachus answers boldly, for Athena has given him courage, and explains that he seeks news of his father Odysseus. Nestor responds with a long account of the returns from Troy: the quarrel between Agamemnon and Menelaus, the division of the fleet, the murder of Agamemnon by Aegisthus, and the vengeance of Orestes. He tells Telemachus that he has heard nothing certain of Odysseus, but that Menelaus, who has only recently returned from his own long wanderings, may know more. Nestor offers Telemachus a chariot and horses, and sends his son Pisistratus to escort him to Lacedaemon. The next morning, after sacrificing a heifer to Athena, Telemachus and Pisistratus set out, driving all day until they reach Pherae, where they spend the night with Diocles, and then continue on to Menelaus's palace.

Significance and Consequences

The journey to Pylos is Telemachus's rite of passage. He leaves Ithaca as a boy who cannot even make the suitors listen to him; he returns as a young man who has sat at the tables of the great heroes of the Trojan War, who has heard the story of Orestes's vengeance held up as a model for his own conduct, and who has begun to forge his own reputation. The voyage also triggers the suitors' plot to ambush and kill him on his return, a conspiracy that Penelope learns of from the servant Medon and that deepens the crisis in Ithaca. Most importantly, the journey creates the temporal and narrative space for Odysseus's own return: while Telemachus is away, Odysseus reaches Scheria, tells his story to the Phaeacians, and is conveyed to Ithaca, so that father and son can reunite and together plan the destruction of the suitors.